We are honoured to be part of the first European solo exhibition by celebrated Canadian
artist Maurice Vellekoop, at Manchester’s vibrant arts and music venue and bar, Twenty
Twenty Two.

Maurice has been teasing and tantalising with his witty and wonderful queer illustrations
(right), celebrating sex-positive attitudes, personal empowerment and the importance
of erotic fantasy, in book, comics and major magazines, for over 20 years.

When curator Bren O’Callaghan invited us to provide an event as part of the exhibition,
we suggested a return visit to Erotic Film Society by leading British creator of
gay and straight porn, Amory Peart, who enthralled an audience in London last November
as he dished the dirt about more than two decades making blue movies and his slyly
subversive approach to sex on screen.

Erotic Film Society aims to develop appreciation and enjoyment of cinematic sex in
all its many manifestations; to re-evaluate and celebrate the work of film-makers
and performers who shaped this century-old, 'shadow' of the mainstream film industry;
and to encourage quality in contemporary erotic cinema though a better understanding
of the genre.

We are delighted to welcome Amory to talk about his richly varied career, his approach
to shooting sex and his thoughts about sexuality.

For this special Manchester show, the evening has been expanded to encompass his
most recent projects and will be illustrated with newly re-mastered clips from his
career - from a recently rediscovered, rare example of his early experimentation
up to his most recent hetero parodies.

If you are likely to be offended by images of straight and/or gay sex, we recommend
that you do not attend. Otherwise, come with an open mind and prepare to be entertained
and have your expectations challenged in equal measure.

"I always had a fascination with recording sex and gender. Porn mags and films seemed
like such a cliché. Whenever I saw any pornographic images, I wanted to speak for
the unspoken, for all those that didn’t see themselves in a porn film. I wanted to
create personal, extremely brutal, naturalistic reality porn, warts and all, for
gay men. At least I did..."

So please join us for an evening of candid conversation and outrageous excerpts,
as we welcome multi-award-winner Amory (left), whose distinctive gay, trans and hetero
porn has consistently challenged simplistic definitions of gender and sexuality,
putting him in the forefront of queer film-making in the UK.

Amory started making films in the early 1990s with Pout Collective, which he co-founded,
and he also documented campaigning by OutRage! The success of his first feature,
Butt Buddies, led to it becoming an eight part soap opera. Constantly pushing boundaries,
he made Britain’s first ‘bear’ film, Lick Daddy, Suck Bear, and first ‘suit’ film,
Straight Acting, about a married businessman’s sexual encounters with skinheads in
public toilets.

"Butt Buddies was a mix of sexually active guys - some femme, some butch, some drag
- living in a house together, a dramatised reenactment of contemporary gay London
sex life. ... There were no ‘bear’ actors when I made Lick Daddy, Suck Bear so I
had to hang around Bulk club and I cast at the Kings Arms pub in London. I shot the
red light orgy scene with a lamp strapped on my head, to recreate the dark room atmosphere
of sexual abandon...”

Next came Piccadilly Pickups, an anarchic tale of a runaway rent boy from Manchester,
drawn into a seedy world of porn videos and enforced feminisation by a ‘rich American
freak’, played by Alexis Arquette. It screened to great acclaim at festivals around
the world.

“Piccadilly Pickups was a response to all those that thought the porn industry was
glamorous. I thought, what would a pornographer do if he was paid to make gay porn
but he wanted to make tranny porn? He’d make gay boy porn stars pretend to be lesbians!
... I twist every film because I believe our sexual minds are the most twisted and
unconventional part of our thoughts. There are no restrictions to our sexual fantasies,
no political correctness...”

In 2000 Channel 4 television invited Amory to direct and present programmes about
contemporary sexuality, resulting in the hour long Sexploration: Sao Paulo and the
series, Digital Sex and Future Sex. But the most unexpected turn in his career was
still to come...

In 2007, he turned his skills to making sharply observed, tongue-in-cheek, XXX parodies
of mainstream feature films and television, aimed at straight men and women. But
despite this new audience, he has still retained his customary edge, gleefully playing
with Hollywood clichés and porno expectations alike in films such as The Secret Diary
Of A Shemale (which features the ghosts of Jack The Ripper’s trans victims!), retro
sci-fi Bionic MILF, vampire epic Fang Bang and his tribute to PM Aggie Snatcher,
The Iron Lady Garden. He most recently turned his sights on ‘reality’ television
in Friends With Benefits Street.

“After making my TV documentaries, I had the opportunity to make some porn for Television
X. I began with The Secret Diary Of A Shemale. I met lots of amazing chicks with
dicks and learnt how and why men fancied them. ... So I have finally moved from trans
porn to what I call queer heterosexual porn - spoofs set in my favourite eras of
the 60s, 70s & 80s. ... My work has gone from reacting against those romantic candles
on the beach with gentle sex and back to it again. Now it’s my time to create softer,
glamorous, fantasy, couples porn for heterosexuals.”